Selling your home can be difficult, and for most of us, living there while it’s on the market can be even harder. Trying to schedule showings around your work and home schedule can drive you crazy, even with a gay real estate professional working with you.

Here are a few tips that will make the entire process easier.

Leave When an Agent Is Showing the House

First, be ready to pick up and leave at any moment. It’s very difficult for a real estate agent to successfully show your home when you’re sitting right there. Potential buyers will likely be much too nervous to really inspect the home and speak freely as they should.

Fortunately, agents are required to schedule showings and let you know ahead of time when they will be by. This will let you know when you need to make arrangements to be somewhere else, so you’re not surprised in the middle of dinner and have to walk out of your own home.

Mind Your Pets

While some people love to meet curious dogs and playful kittens, others are allergic or simply aren’t pet people. Some of our trusted companions can be nervous and unpredictable when strangers come into the home when you’re not there. For the comfort and safety of everyone involved, please take your animals with you when you leave for showings.

Clean, Clean, and Clean Some More

You can never have your home too clean for showings. Since you’re living there, you’re always going to be making small messes all over the house. Even the smallest thing like a few dirty dishes in the sink needs to be taken care of before potential buyers arrive. This means you’re going to be sweeping and vacuuming much more often than you’re used to.

In addition to cleaning, you also want to keep everything as organized as possible. Throw away or organize your mail each day, keep the kid’s room looking tidy, and get your closets, the garage, basement, and attic in order. That sounds like a lot of work, but if you make it a point to clean and organize every day, it won’t be that bad.

Put Away Anything Confidential or Valuable

In an age where identity theft is more common than we’d like to admit, you can’t risk leaving out anything with identifying information on it. Put away any paperwork that has your date of birth, social security number, account number, or other information on it.

Additionally, make sure your valuables are locked up. While a licensed real estate agent will be there with the potential buyers the entire time, you don’t want to take any unnecessary risks.

Remove Anything That’s Truly Personal

When a potential buyer sees something they find distasteful or that clashes with their beliefs, it can cause them to instantly dismiss your home from their shortlist of properties. While it’s true that your religion, political beliefs, or other beliefs have nothing to do with your home, people don’t always separate the two. To that end, it’s a good idea to remove anything that’s overly personal from sight.

That doesn’t mean you have to scrub your home of personality, but take a critical look at your décor. You may want to take down or put away things that you could see someone else disliking.

Your agent can assist you with staging your home so that it looks as bright and as spacious as possible, even while still serving as your living space.

If you’re looking for a LGBTQ real estate agent, they’re not hard to find. You can search online at www.GayRealEstate.com for a list of agents in your city.